guest post // Integrating Your Social Media and Website Strategy: 5 Tips
By Anne Stefanyk of Kanopi Studios
In today’s world, there are so many marketing tools at your disposal. Two of the most powerful are your social media accounts and your website.
By combining the sharing and networking capabilities of social media with the information hub of your website, you can offer richer, more engaging content that encourages supporters to take action.
Consider the following tips to help integrate your social media and website strategies. With these best practices as a guide, you’ll provide a more cohesive multichannel experience for donors, volunteers, advocates, and other stakeholders.
1. Embed your social media feeds on your website.
When you embed your social media feeds on your website, you encourage visitors to engage with your organization on multiple platforms. You give users a sneak peek of what to expect on your social media, enticing them to click through and explore your social media presence in further detail.
If you keep your social media accounts up to date, embedding your feeds will also keep your website content fresh and relevant for your supporters. For example, Kanopi’s nonprofit website guide features the Girl Scouts’ website because of how engaging it is for users. Take a look at how Girl Scouts incorporates its social media feeds on its website:
As you can see, this carousel features a mix of posts from the organization’s Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. Since they created this content for social media, it’s more playful than other elements of the website, giving more personality to the Girl Scouts’ branding and encouraging people to continue exploring the organization.
The Girl Scouts’ website also includes icons at the bottom of the page that link to its social media pages. These icons allow website visitors who are enticed by the embedded feed to easily access the organization’s social media accounts.
2. Create shareable content.
Develop content that you can share across a variety of social media platforms. If your organization already has a content marketing strategy in place, this is a great way to ensure your blog posts reach as many supporters as possible.
Add social sharing buttons to blog posts, articles, and case studies on your website so your supporters can easily promote them on their own accounts. Configure the settings so the images and text automatically adjust to the sizing and formatting of each social media platform. You’ll also want to make sure you create cover images that don’t have important text or visuals cut off once they’re adapted for social media.
You can also share blog content on your organization’s social media accounts. Pull out taglines and images that grab your followers’ attention and inspire them to click through and read the whole article. By creating recyclable content, you’ll save your team time that they can dedicate to more mission-critical activities.
3. Keep your branding consistent.
Ensure your branding, messaging, and visuals are consistent across your website and social media profiles. Not only will your content look more professional and credible, but you’ll also strengthen brand recognition and trust with your supporters.
When your supporters can easily identify your website and social profiles as belonging to your organization, they’ll be more likely to engage with your content online. Check out how the American Heart Association uses consistent branding across its website and social media accounts:
The American Heart Association keeps it simple by using its logo as its profile picture on social media and featuring it on the top banner of its website. The organization’s red-and-white color scheme is prominent across platforms, and the fonts and visual style remain the same as well.
Make sure all members of your marketing team have access to your brand guidelines so they know the correct fonts, colors, visual style, and spacing to use when creating digital assets. Remember to revisit this document over time to determine if you’d like to rebrand or make small adjustments that will enhance your digital marketing efforts.
4. Use social media to drive website traffic.
Propel your nonprofit’s current goals and initiatives forward with social media posts. Create content that drives traffic to your website and encourages supporters to complete desired actions. These may include:
Donating
Registering to volunteer
Signing up for an event
Exploring your blog
Subscribing to your newsletter
By encouraging these activities on your social media, you can convert your followers into active supporters and advocates for your cause. For instance, a university may post content for an upcoming alumni event that links to the event registration page. Then, those who are interested can click through and arrive at the college’s website where they can learn more about the event and ultimately purchase tickets.
Some social media platforms even allow you to facilitate these activities right on your page. For example, Double the Donation recommends using Facebook and Twitter’s fundraising-specific features to drive more engagement and raise more for your cause.
5. Leverage analytics.
Data is the key to more effective marketing. Use analytics tools to track which social media strategies and platforms drive the most traffic and engagement on your website. This information will let you know which methods to focus on and which you may want to adjust.
You may also evaluate how many website visitors are navigating to your social media and how they’re getting there. For instance, if you find that 2,500 visitors have clicked through to your social media from your embedded feed but only 150 have shared one of your blog posts on their pages, you may consider making the social sharing buttons more prominent on your blog.
The data you gather about social media and website engagement can help you personalize your messaging to your supporters as well. For example, a wildlife conservation organization may find that people interested in marine animals often share blog posts on Instagram while those focused on saving the pandas promote blog content on Facebook. Using this data, the nonprofit could create different supporter segments and tailor its content on each platform accordingly.
Your social media and website may be strong on their own, but together, they’re an unstoppable marketing force. The more interconnected your marketing channels are, the better you’re able to reach your supporters and ultimately fulfill your mission.
This guest post was written by Anne Stefanyk.
As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne helps create clarity around project needs, and turns client conversations into actionable outcomes. She enjoys helping clients identify their problems, and then empowering the Kanopi team to execute great solutions.
Anne is an advocate for open source and co-organizes the Bay Area Drupal Camp. When she’s not contributing to the community or running her thoughtful web agency, she enjoys yoga, meditation, treehouses, dharma, cycling, paddle boarding, kayaking, and hanging with her nephew.